LAHORE: A teacher of the City District Government School Fateh Garh was arrested on Saturday for torturing a Grade III student.

Complainant Muhammad Ghafoor told police that his nine-year-old son Muhammad Akbar, a student of Grade III at the CDGL school, was tortured by his teacher Anjum Ali Atta.

“My wife found torture marks on the body of Akbar while giving him a shower. Akbar told us that his teacher, Anjum Ali Atta, had subjected him to severe torture on Friday for not learning a lesson,” he said.

On Ghafoor’s application, Harbanspura police arrested Atta after registering a case against him under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Child Protection Law. “The teacher has confessed to torturing the boy,” a police official told Dawn. He said the suspect would be presented before the court for physical remand.

An official of the education department told Dawn that the teacher in question had been served a show-cause notice and he would subsequently be dismissed from service under the Peeda Act. “We have zero tolerance against corporal punishment in schools. We are keen to promote ‘maar nahi, piyar’ (no to punishment but love),” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2016